As the countrymen stepped up their championship scrap, it was Lorenzo who emerged on top in a close-fought qualifying session.

After a day and a half of wet practice, the track finally dried out in time for the qualifying hour yesterday.

It soon became a battle of the Yamahas with Lorenzo, his factory team-mate Ben Spies, and the two Monster Tech 3 machines of Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso hovering around the top spot.

Pedrosa had got off to a bad start when he crashed his Repsol Honda earlier on, but made a solid comeback to throw his hat into the ring in the closing few minutes.

As Lorenzo and Pedrosa both came out with five minutes to go, it was to be a Spanish armada at the front as they barged to the top of the timesheets.

But ultimately it was Lorenzo who took the spot with a time of 1.49:404mins, a mere 0.088secs faster than his title rival, who lines up alongside him in second spot.

Third and taking the final front row spot was Brit Crutchlow, who also bounced back from a crash yesterday morning to lead the pack for most of the session before Lorenzo and Pedrosa turned up to scrap it out and spoil the party.